Every Wednesday, Chase Christian of Encrypted Text invites you to enter the world of shadows, as we explore the secrets and mechanics of the Rogue class. This week, we'll be talking about Heroic gear available in Northrend.

So, I have been hearing that many of you have put in the time and effort to level your Rogues to 80. Congratulations to all of you who have the perseverance and dedication to stick it out and focus on the goal! You do us Rogues proud. It takes a special kind of player to pull those all-nighters on the road to Icecrown. Unfortunately, I'm not one of those players.

I've been leveling casually through Northrend, exhausting every single quest in a given zone before moving on to the next. In addition, I've been focusing on leveling my tradeskills to 450 and also helping my friends and family as they quest as well, with a little bit of World PvP mixed in when the opportunity presents itself.

However, that hasn't stopped me from looking ahead at all of the "badge reward" gear available for us in Dalaran. I guess we should start calling it "emblem gear" or something, but it just doesn't roll of the tongue. Whatever you call it, I've compiled a list of the 5/10 man loot that is of interest to us subtle shadows. Read on for the details.

I am not ashamed to be a World of Warcraft player. I spend on average about two hours a day playing the game. That takes into account the weekends when I overindulge and the weekdays when I may log in for a few arenas, if at all. I have accomplishments in-game that I'm proud of, and I find it really thrilling to share my thoughts and experiences with the readers of WoW Insider. I proudly wear geeky, WoW-oriented shirts, and proclaim myself as a gamer.

Every once in a while I think to myself that I should do something different with my time. But then I remember that it's some good clean (not to mention cheap) fun that I can share with my friends and family. On top of that, I really enjoy my play time. For an extra-added benefit, I can't remember the last time I was actually bored, with the game or anything else.

An interesting news article hit my inbox today. Dr. Jerald Block is a psychiatrist who specializes in treating pathological computer use. His most stunning statement was that many of his clients were more ashamed of their World of Warcraft addictions than obsessions with internet porn. I can't quite wrap my brain around that.

Dr. Block also believes that previous studies of gaming addiction have been focused on the wrong group. He claims that adults, rather than teens, obsess over online gaming. He is probably right on both accounts. This may lead to a paradigm shift in gaming research.

Do you ever find yourself ashamed of playing WoW?

[Via Boston.com]

So it's been a day or so since we first heard that Death and Taxes was disbanding, and since then, DnT member Xi- has posted a somewhat lengthy explanation as to why. In the end, the biggest reason Xi- gave is pride. Many people, he says, just stopped thinking about the raid and the guild as a whole, and were more focused on their own advancement and their own needs, and became impatient when a boss did not fall easily. When it was time to progress, many of them, even officers, would disappear and stop supporting them.

He also does get in a few Risen style digs about how none of the BC content was half as good as Naxxramas up until Sunwell Plateau, but he did manage to sound a lot more classy than Risen did.

But the point about pride, about guild members who disappear for a while and expect to pick back up where they left off when they return, and about people who never show up for progress kills, or show up and complain if the boss doesn't fall after one or two tries, that rings true with me, as I am sure it rings true with a lot of current and former MMO raiders, whether from WoW or other games.

Lok'Tar! For the Horde! Strength and honor! Ew, I'd never play an Alliance character. Look, it's another stupid night elf female. If it's red, it's dead! All the kiddies play Alliance ...

If you're Horde, you hear things like this every day. The Horde has a large number of loyal partisans who take great pride in being a member of the faction, and think less of anyone on the other side. The Alliance are pretty boys, little kids, ezmode, uncreative. The Horde has all the best heroes, the Horde are the real players, the Horde are the true good guys of WoW. You can't go five minutes in Orgrimmar without hearing one of these sentiments.

But, as Soy of Auchindoun points out, Alliance players don't seem to have the same vocal pride in their faction as Horde do. I've played both sides, and the most I've heard Alliance players call the Horde is ugly and evil. Which admittedly aren't good things to be called, but that's more about the lore than a direct attack on the players behind the avatars. Several players noted that underpopulated races seem to have more pride than overpopulated ones -- you'll see more troll, dwarf and draenei pride than undead, night elf and human. Perhaps that's the reason the Horde feels the need to claim superiority -- since they're the underdog on most servers, they have to do something to keep from feeling like scrubs. Also, the Horde has less prettiness, sparsely populated cities, and are widely perceived as evil. With all that on our heads, it's no wonder we need Horde pride. Adversity has strengthened our spirit and caused us to band together.

I started out as a night elf and ended up as a troll, so I don't really have too much faction pride. I feel a little proud whenever a Horde guild gets a world first, and I do like being a rare class/race/gender combination, but eh ... there are as many annoying people on my side as on theirs. Or, as Borogove of Proudmoore says, "Alliance has more idiots, Horde has more jerks. Pick your poison."

Are you proud to be a member of the Alliance or the Horde? What about your race or class? Do you really hate the other faction? Who do you think has more to be proud of?